Funnily enough this is not an American recipe it was cooked by an Italian
…Giorgio Locatelli on Food TV.
Keeping with the Italian theme...I have even presented it on an Italian plate
that my husband lugged back from Italy as hand baggage nearly 20 years ago.
We still have all 8 plates and bowls and a beautiful jug which is featured
in one of my photos earlier in this blog. The Poached Eye Filet photo in fact.
But enough trivia let's get cooking.
This is really so simple and the filling is so smooth and silky and chocolatey with the hint of cinnamon coming through…
Just use store bought pastry or make your own sweet shortcrust if you’d rather.
1 Pkt Frozen Sweet Short Pastry thawed
1 buttercup pumpkin peeled and cut into chunks for cooking
100 gms bitter chocolate broken into pieces.
100 gms sugar
100 mls water
1 cinnamon stick broken up
50 mls black rum.
Heat oven 200◦
Roll out your pastry and lay it in a greased and floured pie dish.
Bake blind (i.e.cut a circle of baking paper to fit inside the pie dish and lay it on the pastry.Cover with dried beans to weigh it down…you can reuse these)
for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven take out the paper and beans and put back in for
another 3 minutes just to firm up the base.
Meanwhile cook the pumpkin...I did it in the microwave but you could bake it in the oven in a covered dish till very tender.
Don’t boil it this will make it too wet.
Mash pumpkin in a bowl add chocolate pieces.
Heat sugar, water and cinnamon till syrupy 5-10 minutes) throw in the rum cook for another 30 seconds and add to the bowl.
The hot syrup starts to melt the chocolate.
Pile into pie dish and put pie back in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Cool and serve with whipped cream or crème fraiche.
